Nerd Hearts
by IsaacTheGreat
Summary: Part 3 of Homestuck Hearts. EriSol


You've never been more happy in your entire life.

Your name is Eridan Ampora, and your heart just broke.

You have to tell your girlfriend. You run the 4 blocks to her house, hammering on her door until you hear someone descending the stairs. The door opens to reveal Meenah, Feferi's older sister, and you beam at her. She looks you up and down before letting you in.

"What's got into you, guppy? That smile's kinda creepin me out here." You turn to her, practically bouncing on the balls of your feet. "My heart broke this mornin'! Isn't that great?" She smiles at you fondly. "Congrats little dude, I guess you wanna talk to sis?" You nod enthusiastically, and she waves you to the stairs. "You know where to go." You run up the stairs and knock on her door.

"Come in~!"

You open the door to see her in front of her boudoir, doing her hair. She must have gotten up not too long ago. You walk over to her with a bounce in your step, smiling the brightest smile since you were a child. She notices your cheery mood and turns around fully to examine you. "You seem happy today! What happened?"

You feel your entire body buzz with the possibilities this is presenting. "Fef, babe, the greatest thin' happened, my heart broke! I knew we were soul mates!" Her hand drops from where it was carding through her hair to land limply in her lap. You're too excited to wait for her response.

"Come on, show me yours! We're goin' to be so happy, I told you this day-"

"Eridan," You pause to look at her face and your smile falls. She won't look you in the eyes. "I should have gotten this over with sooner. I guess this just proves my point..."

"Fef?" You're a little scared.

"My heart... Hasn't broken yet, Eridan. And I don't think it ever will. At least, not for you."

You blink. "W-what are you sayin'?"

"I'm saying, I don't think we should be seeing each other anymore. I'm sorry."

3

That was two years ago.

You're starting your third year of Alternia High with a broken heart and a crushed smile.

So, nothing new. For you, anyways. Years of having an incomplete heart made the Broken Heart Effect wear off. Supposedly, once your heart breaks, you become overcome with one of two emotions: life without your sou lmate, or life with them by your side forever. You were blessed with the latter, however the time has made you rigid. You'd hate to think what the other asshole is like by now.

You're too busy in your thoughts as you walk that you don't see the other boy coming at you until you land flat on your ass and you're both swearing.

"W-watch w-where you're fuckin' goin'!"

"I wathn't the athhole who wath glaring at the concrete!"

"So you knew w-what you w-were doin'?!"

At this he smirks. "Of courthe, I jutht love knocking the douthebagth on their feet. Have a nithe day, athhole." And with that he walks away. Your anger is only interrupted by a single thought.

He only has half a heart.

3

It turns out that you have 3 classes with Mr. Douchebag. Even worse, his last name comes almost immediately after yours in role call, so you're stuck either next to him or pretty fucking close for most of the day.

You find out Mr. Douchebag's name is Sollux Captor.

Now that you got a chance to look at him, you think you might know him from somewhere. You're pretty sure his bro and Cronus are friends or something.

Great.

You'll be seeing a lot of him.

The bell rings, signaling the end of school, and your teacher yells something about getting all your shit signed.

Sure.

If your dad is even in town tonight.

It's not as bad as it sounds. Your family have pretty much all been fisherman by trade for generations, so it's not unusual for you and your brother to be home alone for a while when your dad is out on a job.

Doesn't mean it isn't lonely, though.

You walk into the quad to find your brother talking with his other asshole friends and almost turn around when he turns his head and spots you. You sigh, walking over to his group and frowning as he takes you under his arm and ruins your perfectly styled hair.

"Can you just hurry the fuck up, I w-wanna go home." Cronus looks at you funny and you're about to say something else when one of his friends speaks up, and you recognize him as Sollux's brother.

"Yuh man, I gerta find my bro befur he leafs me beehind." You raise an eyebrow at his speech, but keep quiet as Cronus releases you to regard his friend.

"A'ight Mit, see ya tomorrow?" Sollux's brother nods and skates away in the direction you just came from. You look at Cronus.

"Can't he drive himself?" Cronus studies your face for a second before giving you that _are you fucking stupid?_ Look. "No. He can't. He got in an accident last year and has brain damage. He will have to be driven around and taken care of the rest of his life." He says all of this in a monotone voice, and you can tell you pissed him off.

"Alright, w-whatever, sorry I asked. Can w-we just go now?" Cronus starts walking towards the parking lot without another word, and you jog to catch up.

3

"Hey athhole."

You ignore him.

"Hey douthe."

You keep writing your notes.

"ED."

You look at him.

"The fuck did you just call me?"

"Oh tho the ACTUAL inthultth don't bother you but the nickname doeth."

"It sounds retarded."

"Jutht like you." You sigh.

"W-what is it."

"You got any lead?"

"Captor, Ampora! Pay attention."

You swear to all the fucking gods you hate Sollux Captor.

3

You don't really hate Sollux Captor.

He's grown on you. That's all you can bear to admit to yourself.

The two of you have exchanged enough notes in class for you to know that he's the one taking care of his brother, he loves video games, and he works for some big corporate ass company coding and shit. You also know he hasn't had a single day to himself since his brother's accident. You almost feel sorry for him.

So what do you do? You convince Cronus to hang out with Mituna (you just learned his name the other day) while you make Sollux relax.

And by relax you mean scream at the TV loud enough to wake the dead while playing GTO4 on your big screen in the living room.

You've got chips and other various snacks in bowls on the coffee table in front of you and some of the food has found it's way to the carpet. There are several empty cans of Monster and Sprite on the coffee table as well, and you're currently in the kitchen getting more while Sollux tries to improve on his last score in CODBO. You never much cared for first person shooter games, but Cro loves them. You and Sollux – or rather, Sollux – have already doubled his high score by the time he comes through the door with Mituna.

"Hey Eridan, Little Mit's gotta leave, Dad'll be home soon." He walks into the living room and stops. "The fuck did you do to the house? It looks like a fuckin' mess." You take stock of the room, and it finally registers in your mind how much of a mess you and Sollux made.

"Oh shit."

"Cim on Shollux, we gotte go~." Sollux sighs lightly, his mini vacation over. "Yeah yeah, I know MT, give me a minute." You stand up with him and put out your hand, but he steps forward and hugs you. For a brief moment, the emptiness that's occupied your heart for 2 years disappears, and you enjoy the contact. He breaks away from the hug with a light blush on his face. You take a moment to take in his appearance, really looking at him for the first time.

He has dark brown hair, almost black, and it's a complete mess of cowlicks and slight curls. His skin is a slight olive colour and he has one brown eye, one blue. He's usually wearing shades, so this is the first time you've actually seen them clearly. He's wearing a Black Veil Brides shirt and light grey skinny jeans, along with mismatch converse; one black and one white.

You blink, realizing you've been staring at him and look over at your brother. He has a knowing smirk on and he makes a heart with his hands behind Sollux's back.

"Alright, you ready MT?" Sollux turns to his brother, who just nods and heads out the door. Sollux mutters a quick goodbye before following his brother out of the apartment.

3

Sollux Captor is now your best friend.

You don't know when it happened, maybe during one of your video game sessions, maybe during a skype call when he couldn't sleep because Mituna was having another nightmare and wouldn't stop screaming. All you know is, you haven't felt this close to someone since before you and Feferi had started dating.

He finally invites you over to his house to study for midterms, and when you get there you begin to understand why he was always so eager to come to your house.

There are disposable dishes and utensils everywhere, and clothes on every flat surface. Game controllers and disks are thrown around the TV as if a toddler had a fit after losing his favourite game. There's a turned over chair near the dining room and from what you can tell the kitchen is a complete mess. Sollux shows you to his room and you're thankful for the clean bed space to sit on as he goes to his game selection to find something for the both of you to play.

After 2 hours of Modern Warfare on his PC, you remind him that you have to actually get some studying done, and the text books come out. It's relatively quiet, and Sollux tells you that his parents took Mituna to his monthly check up. You look up to see a strange look on Sollux's face.

"Is it hard? Givin' up all the things you like, and all your free time, to take care of him?"

Sollux looks at you, studying your face as he thinks your question over. "Thometimeth. Thometimeth my parentth forget that I'm a teenager too and that I want thome time to dick around on the internet. Other timeth, jutht theeing MT'th thmile when I do thomething right, that'th enough to make it all okay." You smile at him, and he smiles back. You go back to studying.

You end up staying the night, which is okay with both of your respective guardians since it's a friday. Sollux insists you take his bed, but you refuse to leave him on the couch. Finally, the both of you just decide to share the bed. You're both juniors in high school, you're grown up enough to sleep on the same fucking mattress. You lie awake for hours, Sollux's breath tickling your nose as you watch his chest rise and fall. Your eyes drift down to the barely concealed heart on his chest.

His half heart.

The one shaped just like yours.

When your mom was alive, she would tell you stories of how all hearts were unique, and there could only be one heart to match your own once it broke. She would tell you that the person who was your match was your soul mate, and that you would love them forever. You would ask her 'like you and daddy?' and she would nod with the biggest smile on her face.

You wonder if Sollux is...

No. He can't be. You don't love him.

Do you?

The rest of your night is filled with flitting dreams of botched confessions and hetero-chromatic eyes.

3

You're pretty sure you do NOT love Sollux Captor.

At least, you tell yourself that. If you were in one of Karkat's shitty romance novels, he would say you're in that part of the book where the character is denying their love.

But you're not.

So you will continue denying everything.

You walk by John and Dave, catching them swapping spit, and you balk. Everyone knew they were meant for each other; they've been joined at the hip since elementary school. It didn't surprise anyone when their hearts broke to fit each other, except maybe them. They were clueless to the other's feelings for the longest time.

You wonder if it's the same way with you and Sol. Does he like you like you like him? You shake your head. With your luck, even your soul mate would hate you. You try to think of your feelings toward Sollux. You both started out hating each other, bu then you guess you started... pitying him? Then you guys became friends, and now he's your best friend.

But do you want him to be more?

3

You love Sollux Captor.

You came to that conclusion about a month ago, and you're dying inside watching him flirt with some girl from your math class. Her name started with an A. Arin? Ares? Something like that. You don't like her.

3

Your heart is breaking for Sollux Captor.

Metaphysically speaking; your physical heart's been broken for almost 3 years now.

Sollux started dating Aradia about 2 weeks ago, and you've never been more miserable. Well, that's not quite right. You're pretty sure this is the same feeling you had when you found out Feferi wasn't your soul mate. He talks about her constantly; their plans for later that day, what they did the previous day, creepy things she thinks are cool.

You hate all of it.

You just want your friend back.

3

Sollux Captor is crying in front of you for the first time on skype.

He says Aradia dumped him.

You've never been happier. Of course, you'd never tell him this.

"She's too creepy for you anyw-ways. She's like one of those see-through fishes. You know, the ones you can see the bones of? Not right man." He laughs lightly and wipes his eyes.

"Yeah, I gueth. It jutht theemed like we were going to work out."

After a moment of silence, you ask the question that's been bothering you all night. "So w-why did she leave you anemonew-ways?" He lets out a snort at your pun, "Becauthe my heart'th already broken. Thaid it wath 'one of the few thingth thhe ithn't okay with'." You shake your head. That's a stupid reason, but your happy she's out of his life. You tell him so. He laughs.

You've decided. It's now or never.

"Hey, Sol."

"Yeah ED?"

"Meet me at my house asap. I w-want to show you somethin'." You sign out of skype and lean back in your desk chair.

And wait.

3

There's a knock at your door and you run to answer it before Cronus. You open it to see a mildly irritated Sollux standing in your doorway with his hands shoved in his pockets.

"What did you want to thow me?" You gulp, turning around without a word and motioning for him to follow you. The two of you make it to your door and you open it, ignoring Sollux's questions about what this is about. You open your bedside table drawer and pocket something before he can see, and that makes him more curious.

"ED, theriouthly, what ith it?" You take a step towards him, and before you can say anything, you're hugging him. He lets out a noise of surprise before hugging you back and sighing. "You know," He says from where his face is buried in your scarf, "If you wanted to hug me, you could have jutht thaid tho, inthtead of worrying me like thith." You step back and look into his eyes, and you note the sadness in them. It's the same as when Feferi left you.

"That w-wasn'th w-what I w-wanted to show you, Sol."

"Then what ith it, ED?" He's not impatient, just curious. You appreciate his patience; if he got mad at you now, you might chicken out. You take the object out of your pocket and show it to Sollux. He studies it for a minute before his eyes widen in understanding.

"When-"

"Years ago. I thought it w-was just a coincidence at first, but..." You take a deep breath and look up from studying your heart piece. "I love you, Sol."

You fit your piece to the one in his chest with a barely audible 'click', and you can visibly see him relaxing. He hugs you and you smile into his shoulder, hugging him back. "I love you too, ED." He pulls away, rummaging a hand through his pockets before he pulls out a half honey yellow heart piece and fits it to yours, the colours meeting in the middle. You feel a wave of relief wash over you, and you can tell that this is it. This is what finding your soul mate feels like. What living your life with them feels like. What it feels like to finally be happy.

The two of you kiss, and you smile.

You could get used to this.

 **A/N: in case someone didn't get the inference, when Eridan's heart broke was the day he first met Sollux, but he didn't think that was the reason it had broke and thus didn't really remember it as it happened. I like to think they met in the middle of the grocery store when Eridan dropped something and it was love at first sight. Anyways, I hope you guys liked it!**


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